Miyamoto: New Wii Zelda in 2010 *

New Wii Zelda coming in 2010

Nintendo's press event concluded earlier today with a couple of choice surprises that showed the company is serious about appeasing a hardcore community that has challenged them in recent years to create more games that target the "classic" Nintendo fan.  

Games like Metroid: Other M and Super Mario Galaxy 2 were music to those ears, but the biggest news came just minutes ago in an exclusive roundtable discussion with Shigeru Miyamoto, attended by IndustryGamers.

The influential video game designer and creator of Mario announced that a new The Legend of Zelda game is currently in development, and will be released in 2010.  Zelda mainstay director Eiji Aonuma is also involved in the project. 

"I really wanted to show a Zelda game at E3, but we wanted to focus on development," said Miyamoto, instead trying to concentrate attention on DS game The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.  

Miyamoto only showed one piece of concept artwork to the small audience, and discussed the possibility of making it compatible with Wii Motion Plus.  In fact, he left open the possibility of having the new game exclusively playable with the Wii Motion Plus.  The peripheral requirement, Miyamoto said, would be dependent on sales of Wii Sports Resort.

Miyamoto also implored show attendees to keep in mind the new Wii Zelda when playing Wii Sports Resort and the Swordplay game in that title.  We've already played that game, and it was very impressive to see the accuracy of our movements reflected on screen.

A side observation: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks has seen impressive lines throughout day one of the show, and is one of the two most played Nintendo games today.  The other?  Wii Sports Resort.